Pathophysiology and treatment of secondary obsessive-compulsive behaviors and tics.

Advances in neurobiological research suggest that certain frontal-subcortical circuits play important roles in idiopathic obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome. Tics and obsessive-compulsive behaviors secondary to neurologic insult appear to involve the same neural circuitry. There are few systematic studies of the treatment of obsessive-compulsive behaviors and tics associated with neurologic disorders. However knowledge of the circuitry and associated neurochemistry of these disorders can help to outline a rational approach to these behaviors.